Something Entirely Different
by JDPhoenix
Summary: Tenaya is injured after a fight and learns something about Ziggy. Tenaya/Ziggy if you squint. Written after Go for Green yet somehow contains spoilers for Ranger Green.


Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I in any way associated with, Power Rangers.

AN: I actually wrote this a few weeks ago, right after seeing Go for the Green, but never posted it here (it's been over in the RPM community on LJ) because I was fairly certain canon would destroy any chance of it ever happening. Well, turns out it didn't. Ranger Green vindicated me (somewhat) and I'm so happy that I'm finally posting this here. I'm actually still in shock about how well this fits (though Tenaya still might make me wrong). Oh, and because I'm so pleased by this happy accident I'm not changing anything to fit better in canon. So when you read and think "that's not what that looked like" keep in mind that I wrote this long before we even knew _that_ even existed.

**Something Entirely Different**

The artificial atmosphere was set to a perfect 72 degrees. A perfect day to celebrate the Rangers' recent victory.

Tenaya walked slowly down the street, trying to hide her limp. The Blue Ranger had clipped her knee during their fight and she needed to fix it before the damage became too extensive. The only problem was that with the walls of the city firmly in place she was cut off from help. She would have to find some way to fix it on her own.

"Stop, villain!" a familiar voice called out.

Tenaya whirled, searching for the Green Ranger, but he was nowhere to be found. As she scanned the faces of the pedestrians around her she realized that none of them seemed to think anything was amiss. If the Green Ranger hadn't been calling her and there was no other robot about…

"Ahhhhh!" came the Green Ranger's voice again. "Oh no! Not the face!"

Tenaya frowned and hurried in the direction the sound had come from, determined to find out what was going on. She hurried down an alley, wondering if the little fool had gotten himself cornered by thugs again.

"My friend, Brachiosaur, will save me!"

She eased open a small purple door and slipped inside. A few tiny faces glanced her way but quickly returned their attention to the white sheet at the front of the room. The twenty or so children scattered across the floor seemed engrossed in the monochromatic drama being played out upon the screen. The edges of the tiny room were lined with shelves, most containing tattered books and a few toys. The children burst into laughter when a shadow resembling a dinosaur appeared on the sheet and began attacking a person-shaped blur.

"Oh no you don't!" the Green Ranger's voice came from behind the screen.

The person-shaped blur leapt up, did a series of strange twists and attacked the dinosaur. As the dinosaur fell off the screen the person disappeared, a human face in its place. It mouthed the Green Ranger's words. "And now for you, Dr. Malevolent! Oh no! He's escaped! But I shall never give up the fight, for I am …"

The children all cried out at once, "Super Shadow!"

The sheet dropped and the Green Ranger stood, smiling at the children. When he caught sight of Tenaya at the back of the room he paled but quickly bowed to his eager audience, apparently not wishing to frighten them. Tenaya did not move while he hugged a few of them, answering questions ranging from where he'd learned to make shadow puppets to when he'd be back to tell them another story. An older woman soon appeared at a door to the Green Ranger's left and called the children to do their homework. She thanked the Green Ranger before turning her attention to Tenaya.

"She's a friend of mine," the Ranger said quickly.

"Oh," the woman said. She leaned close to him and whispered in his ear, "She's very pretty."

The Green Ranger turned a faint red and the woman quickly went after the children.

When she was gone he turned to Tenaya, his eyes hard. "If you hurt them, I will kill you."

She cocked her head slightly. "We will kill them all, Green Ranger," she said, as if it were obvious.

He shook his head and started folding the sheet. "Ziggy. My name is Ziggy." He gave the sheet a rather vicious tug and looked at her over his shoulder. "What are you doing here anyway? Didn't we beat you well enough this morning?"

Tenaya flexed her knee slightly and winced at the small mechanical whirr that accompanied even so small a movement. The Gree-- Ziggy turned sharply at the sound, then saw the way she held that leg slightly off the ground and the strange way the lower half of the leg hung.

"Flynn'll be happy. He didn't think he hit you hard enough to do any damage." Seeing her stormy expression he sighed. "If you promise not to purposefully attack this place or these children, I'll help you fix it."

"Why?"

"Because I care about them and I don't want to see them hurt. Deal?"

She considered her options. If she said no there was a good chance he would morph and attack her here, regardless of the children. And even if he didn't she doubted she could find the tools she needed in such a human city. She nodded stiffly and he motioned her to a wooden chair. She hurried over, not bothering to waste energy hiding the limp in his presence.

He brought over the sheet as well as a toolbox and the desk lamp that had been used to cast the shadows. "I do odd jobs for Ms. Martin whenever I come over," he explained as he examined her knee. He tore away part of her jeans to get a better look at the damage and seemed taken aback by the blood. She snatched the screwdriver from his hand and began fixing it herself. He shrugged and sat back on the floor, watching her work.

"What were you doing?" she asked after several moments.

"What? When?"

She was bent over so that when she looked at him her eyes were rolled high up and he couldn't decipher her expression. "When I came in."

"Oh! The shadow puppets!" He shrugged again. "The kids always seem to get a kick out of it and it was one of the only things I was ever really good at. Might as well put it to good use."

"You tell them stories."

"Yeah."

She reached for the toolbox and he handed her a metoric calibrator.

"I do know what you're doing," he said with a small smile.

She frowned and went back to work. "Do you do this at all the educational facilities in Corinth?"

"Schools," he corrected. "And no. Just here. And this isn't a school, it's an orphanage."

She cocked her had again. "What does 'orphanage' mean?"

"It's a place where children live when they don't have parents. Most of them were left alone after Venjix attacked. Someone has to take care of them."

"Ms. Martin."

"Yup. She's a great lady."

"Such a 'great lady' shouldn't lie."

Ziggy blinked. "Lie? When did she lie?"

Keeping her eyes on her work, she answered, "She said I was pretty."

After a moment of silence Ziggy said, "I hate to tell you this, since you're an evil robot and all, but you kind of are."

She looked up sharply. "I am hideous. I am all that is evil in the world. You can find no more horrific creature -- within or without -- than I."

He stared at her for eight point two seconds before bursting out laughing. He actually fell back on the floor, clutching his sides. She watched him, wondering just what sort of neurological ailment he had that made him behave in such a manner.

"Oh," he said, slowly regaining control of himself, "that was good. Who knew evil robots could joke?"

"It was not a joke."

He blinked. "Seriously?"

She nodded.

"Okay," he said, standing, "let's get a couple things straight right here and now. You may be evil and bent on the destruction of the human race as we know it, but you are still seriously hot. I mean, if you had become the Green Ranger and, you know, hadn't been evil, I would totally have hit on you."

"You're deluded," she said and went back to working on her knee.

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to speak but a small figure was standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Lucy," he said to the tiny blonde, wondering just how much of their conversation she'd heard.

"Ms. Martin says to tell you that the kitchen sink is leaking again."

"Okay," Ziggy said. He took three instruments out of his toolbox and set them in Tenaya's reach. "Don't move," he hissed as she marveled as his ability to recognize what she would most likely need while he was gone.

"And," Lucy continued, "she wants to know if you and your girlfriend are staying for dinner."

Ziggy almost dropped the toolbox. "No!" he cried. "I mean, no, we can't. Sorry, sweety." He herded Lucy away as he rushed from the room, Tenaya glaring daggers at his back all the way.

When he returned she was healed and had even managed to find a sewing kit in one of the top shelves to repair her pants.

"Remember our deal," he said as they went out into the alley, "you leave these kids alone."

She nodded. "I will. But only because I have no doubt that you will not tell your friends of how easily I was injured."

He scoffed. "What makes you think that?"

"You would have to tell them you helped me and you will not do that." She smiled wickedly, knowing she'd won.

"Whatever," he said and hurried away. At the mouth of the alley he looked back at her. "And I wasn't kidding about you being beautiful. It's just the inside that's evil an hideous … more or less."

Something warm filled Tenaya's chest as he disappeared and she couldn't tell if it was hatred or something entirely different.

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